We’re in a downturn, economists say, on the verge of recession.Is this the time to scale-back investments in information technology?

Not at all, according to CIOs and analysts quoted in a recent New York Times article regarding the state of technology spending.

The real danger may be in spending too little, thus putting your company behind the curve when it comes to the use of new technology.

Few would argue that the economy has hit a rough patch, which is why IT executives and line-of-business managers are making tougher decisions as to which systems are nice-to-have and which are must-haves.

Programs that foster stronger customer relationships and fuel sales opportunities will continue to be popular among large and midsized companies, while financial systems remain an integral part of any business.

Joining CRM and financials on center stage is talent management, software that has moved from the HR house to the executive suite as employee recruiting, compensation and performance have come to the fore.

Enabling the emergence of talent management in a tight economy has been the rise of Software as a Service, a truly disruptive model for delivering technology solutions.Talent management software delivered as a service – otherwise known as “on-demand” – has a number of benefits over traditional on-premise software, including faster deployment, more efficient upgrades and, of significance to the HR manager as well as the CFO, much lower upfront costs.

As research and advisory firm Bersin & Associates noted in its report this month on talent management suites, “No matter the organization size, the business case for on-demand is compelling.”

To wit, the average customer might expect to spend approximately $525 per employee per year for access to Workstream’s on-demand talent management suite, a sizable discount compared to traditional licensed software and a breath of fresh air for the belt-tightening CFO.

A sagging U.S. economy will not hold back the talent management market, which analysts expect will grow to more than $4.0 billion in revenue by 2009.Human resources and finance executives recognize clearly that an investment in people – a company’s greatest asset – is a bargain at any price.

Friday, January 25, 2008

Last week, former Brocade CEO Gregory Reyes was sentenced to 21 months in prison and fined $15M, making him the second executive to be punished in a Justice Department stock option “backdating” dragnet that so far has ensnared more than 200 companies.

Backdating is about questionable executive decision-making and fraudulent stock accounting, but it also shines a light on employee compensation management, a hot topic in business in 2007.Reyes’ crime was ordering employee option grants to be altered such that when the stock was sold, employees would realize a greater financial gain than should have been possible.Backdating is legal when properly disclosed, but a failure to do so can result in concealed costs and inflated profits that impact how much employees and executives are paid.

Compensation systems that manage employee and executive pay are a valuable form of company oversight and protection for investors.The ability of Boards and finance managers to closely monitor when option grants are offered and revised can go a long way towards troubleshooting problems before they spiral out of control.Case in point:The Brocade incident wiped out hundreds of millions of dollars in company profits after its books were restated due to the backdating scandal.

The most advanced compensation management systems track everything from employee salary and stock awards to non-cash incentives.Related systems enable employees themselves to access, view, model and manage all of their corporate-sponsored compensation and financial benefits.Theoretically, this would help to prevent an employee’s stock options award from changing without his or her knowledge.

As more backdating cases go to trial in 2008, compensation management will continue to be thrust into the spotlight.Companies can mitigate employee and investor concerns over these issues by proactively monitoring compensation practices and procedures.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

A recent study by Philadelphia-based talent training consultancy Manpower confirms a burning question in business today:After companies find and hire top employee talent, how will they keep them?Once upon a golden era, young men and women in this country found the best job available to them, and stayed put.This is no longer the case.According to the Economist, American employees remain at a job only four years, on average.British workers, meanwhile, stay more than 10 years.And if you live in Greece, you are likely to view at least three Summer Olympics in the same company cafeteria before taking up with your next employer.

So, what about the employer/employee model has changed over the years to cause this shift and, more importantly, what is industry doing about it?

A plethora of theories persist as to why workers come and go so quickly, among the more popular are globalization—many countries are now in the hunt for top talent—and a reversal of the fundamental balance between work/life satisfaction that has more people pursuing personal passions than ever before.Undoubtedly there is truth in both theses.Thanks to the Information Age, workers are finding new and possibly better opportunities in companies on continents they might not have considered previously, and the allure of careers that promote social responsibility is at an all-time high.

Undeterred, businesses are finding new ways of keeping top employee talent longer.Industry data indicates that employees respond best to company incentives that include the ability to grow within an organization, workplace flexibility, and a corporate culture that breeds camaraderie.For an increasing number of businesses, the backbone of these initiatives is talent management software that enables companies to align goals and objectives with tools for ensuring smarter and more effective employee compensation, performance management and development decisions.

Talent management systems that drive employee retention have in fact become so ingrained in business today that a record number of HR executives and professionals from more than a dozen countries attended the 10th Anniversary HR Technology Conference & Exposition in October.Workstream was of course on-hand to lead the charge.

Friday, November 16, 2007

A new survey from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) helps to illustrate what many in the talent management industry have been saying for some time:In a flat world, the ability to find and retain top talent is foremost among the challenges faced by global companies.

Indeed. Many of the world’s largest and most successful companies are working feverishly to update business processes and implement technology systems that support an economy where talent management has no borders.Among the Global 2000 companies, there appears to be little doubt that the old methods of recruiting and retaining key staff are ill-suited to today’s global business environment.

Steve Rimmer, PwC partner in the Human Resource Services practice, apparently agrees: "Almost one-third of these U.S. respondents also expect to use a language other than their own in the workplace. Employers seeking to attract and retain these highly capable employees will need to take these types of expectations into account."

Karen Vander Linde, a partner in the Advisory practice at PwC, drives the point home when she says, “The global economy is shaping expectations of the future workforce."

As if on cue, two Global 2000 companies this week signed long-term commitments to extend and expand their use of Workstream’s advanced talent management software systems, and a third Global 2000 company with significant operations in Southeast Asia signed a similar agreement.

These deals underscore the critical role technology is playing in helping growing companies manage talent on a global scale, and Workstream is a prime example of that trend.Today, Workstream solutions are used by dozens of global businesses and hundreds of thousands of employees internationally, and its latest software release provides support for 10 languages and multiple currencies out-of-the-box.

In a flat world with many open markets, enhanced communications and an increasingly educated global workforce, leading companies will implement cutting-edge talent management systems first.In the race for talent, now is the wrong time to be on the outside of this trend looking in.

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

As any marketing person can tell you, dramatic change in perception often requires a tipping point.Whether it’s a new product or an emerging product category, the breakout finally happens when a critical mass is reached and everyone involved seems to understand there is no going back to the old way of thinking about that product or category.

The HR Technology show in Chicago last month was precisely that tipping point for talent management.Press and pundits all seem to agree that talent management, once considered a nice-to-have set of tools for capturing employee data, has moved up the business value chain considerably, taking its place alongside other strategic application suites in the enterprise.

The shift has much to do with the availability of integrated talent management suites that incorporate advanced recruiting, compensation, performance and development solutions, which work together seamlessly and provide executives with previously unavailable visibility into the talent machinations of their businesses.Cross-application business intelligence combined with global capabilities and a slick Web 2.0 interface are primary tenets of the new and strategic breed of unified talent management suites, and Workstream is proud to be leading this charge.

Kudos to SystematicHR for being among the first to recognize the talent management tipping point.The future of talent management is indeed a very bright one.

Workstream 7.0 (and prior releases) has been architected in such a way that is highly configurable, and we have developed an extensive set of configuration tools to exploit this. If and when we experience an important functionality gap for a client that cannot be handled through existing configuration, our implementation and development model allows for incorporation of new client needs into the core code base.As a result, today we do extremely little customization. Among other things, this addresses the historical problems faced by companies that manage many different, customized code bases (including upgrading and code support challenges).

We leverage multi-tenancy extensively where it is appropriate, and strong and rapid configuration is key to this model as well. But, even when a company addresses the configuration issue as Workstream has, there are other powerful drivers that argue for single-tenant, virtualized environment.These include elegantly addressing thorny concerns over security and data partitioning. For some clients, these concerns are paramount. A very real example is the use of talent management solutions by government agencies involved in law enforcement or intelligence gathering.For these enterprises, multi-tenancy simply is not an option.

SaaS is a relatively new phenomenon in the talent management arena.While virtually all of our recently added clients have purchased Workstream solutions as a service, Workstream—and many other talent management vendors—continue to have clients that have deployed on-premise and have not yet taken advantage of the benefits of SaaS and virtualization. As these companies migrate to the new SaaS model, Workstream will continue to grow its ratio of software-to-services revenue.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

It’s been less than a week since we wrapped-up the Workstream TalentCenter 7.0 (aka Project X)launch at the HR Tech Conference and I’m just now coming down off the high.What an amazing event!In case you missed it -- and, based on the launch event and show-floor traffic, clearly few people did -- Chicago was the site of the 10th Anniversary Human Resource Executive's HR Technology Conference & Exposition.

Talent management and its increasingly significant role in the enterprise was a popular subject throughout the week.Workstream was leading much of the discussion, with talk centered around the launch ofTalentCenter 7.0.Already, several pundits (InfoWorld, SystematicHR, Bersin & Associates and KnowHR) have commented on what is thought to be the very first Talent Management 2.0 offering.Among the best sound bites we have heard are:

“Workstream’s 7.0 release is completely reengineered to include a new Web 2.0 UI, and on top of that, it is far more integrated that ever before.Combined with money and new direction from the top, Workstream now seems well positioned to be a market leader yet again.” – SystematicHR

“What Workstream is doing for talent management will most likely be the direction for any SaaS provider offering a suite of related solutions for a particular industry or product category.” – InfoWorld

“The product looks fantastic, and in fact the dashboard interface is so sexy and appealing to business people that many people crowded around the Workstream booth just to see how it worked.” – Bersin & Associates

“The company continues to deliver on its aggressive schedule of product launches under the leadership of Deepak Gupta, president and CEO.” – KnowHR

Indeed, very high praise from folks who are in-the-know.Workstream definitely made a statement about industry leadership and vision.For those who were unable to attend HR Tech, we hope you’ll join us for the upcoming TalentCenter 7.0 webcast.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

What had been a closely guarded secret known only to high-level members of the HR community is now officially out-of-the-bag:Workstream today announced the future of talent management.

The new release – widely regarded as the first-ever Talent Management 2.0 offering – seeks to help businesses succeed in finally making talent management strategic within the enterprise.For the first time, companies can leverage a unified suite of talent management solutions that include advanced analytics and dashboards, built-in multi-language/multi-currency support, a common reporting engine and user-definable, personalized workspaces – all within a Web 2.0 interface.

Businesses can now assess talent management from a global perspective, via applications that are secure and easy to use, and which enable staff from the CEO on down to view and interact with data that is personalized, configurable and actionable.The ability to slice-and-dice data across talent management functions will be a distinct advantage to companies when competing for top talent, and the end result will be improved productivity and retention, reduced compliance risk, labor costs and employee attrition.

Impressed were those at the Project X Sneak Peak last night in Chicago who saw for the first time TalentCenter 7.0.And, among feedback from the analyst community is this gem:

“Other players in the talent management space have received attention recently, but, until seeing your v7 pitch, I had not fully appreciated how much Workstream has grown and the focus you have at the high end of the marketplace,” said Jeff Kaplan, Managing Director of THINKstrategies and the founder of the SaaS Showplace.“The new BI and analytics capabilities are very timely, and will enhance the value of Workstream’s SaaS solutions.”

Be sure to visit this space later in the week to access the TalentCenter 7.0 podcast and webcast, and for additional details about TalentCenter 7.0, the future of talent management.

Monday, October 08, 2007

For the past few months, we’ve talked in this column about the fierce battle companies are waging to find and retain top talent, and the creative ways they are using software to accomplish these goals.We’ve also discussed the rise of Software as a Service and cost, ease-of-use and deployment/upgrade benefits that accompany this new model of software delivery.At the intersection of these trends is talent management software, which has become one of the hottest and fastest-growing categories in the software industry.

Nevertheless, until recently, talent management has not been used as the strategic weapon it can and should be for organizations.That’s all about to change.Advances in talent management software, including the unification of key functions, cutting-edge analytics and dashboards, a dynamic user interface, and tools that support global deployment, are key tenets of what many in the industry now are referring to as Talent Management 2.0.

Talent Management 2.0 is the next generation of talent management software.Its form is a unified software suite that provides global businesses with detailed views into their most critical employee data.This is a considerable step forward in the HR market.Rather than purchasing point solutions that are disconnected from one another, businesses have a single system of HR dashboards driven by a business intelligence engine that integrates employee compensation, performance, development, recruiting, and competencies data.Talent Management 2.0 software is truly global in nature, which is critical as companies diversify their operations globally.

Talent Management 2.0 is primed to disrupt the software market for three reasons.First, the sizable labor shortage predicted by the Department of Labor at the end of the decade.Second, the critical need companies have to focus more carefully and strategically on compliance.And, third, the success of the Software as a Service model.

Check back here on Wednesday, October 10 for details about the industry’s very first Talent Management 2.0 offering.The future is now!

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Many of us have heard the computer science aphorism “Garbage In, Garbage Out,” meaning it’s difficult to create a good result with bad input.The same applies to human decision-making.It’s difficult to make the correct decision if you have faulty, incomplete, or imprecise data.Talent management is no exception.

Trying to analyze data stored in paper records, spreadsheets or Word documents is not only time-consuming and frustrating, it’s ineffective and error-prone.A recent article in Workforce magazine underscores the importance of sophisticated workforce analytics applications in helping HR staff and business managers sift quickly and intelligently through data such as performance reviews and compensation packages to make smart decisions about hiring, promotions and pay.

The key to effective talent management is putting actionable data in front of the right people at the right time.If compensation and performance data, for example, live on disparate data “islands,” disconnected from one another, it is impossible for executives to make informed, strategic business decisions.Unless information is presented to the user in a format that is unified, simply having the data stored somewhere doesn’t make much difference.

Companies of all sizes are realizing that analytics and reporting tools are vital for the most strategic talent management tasks.A recent study by the International Association for Human Resource Information Management and consulting firm Knowledge Infusion found growing interest in workforce analytics software.35% of companies with 2,500 employees or more are in the process of implementing analytics software.Moreover, the study found that 30% of companies of the same size indicated they will make significant investments in analytics software during the next three years.

The most useful workforce analytics software will span the typical silos of information in a company, pulling data from all talent management applications and offering complete insight into how the organization is performing relative to talent management initiatives and objectives; and that’s the real goal. By providing this access, executives can identify how best to steer the organization going forward.Stay tuned for more information from Workstream on this topic in the coming months.

And, if you are going to be at HR Technology Conference in Chicago the week of October 8th, please stop by our booth, #320, to see the future of Talent Management... and win an iPod, iPhone or iMac while you’re at it!

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

The leopard in the above photo appears nimble, ready to deploy at a moment’s notice.In this way it parallels Software as a Service (SaaS), the sassy model for software delivery, that is causing significant disruption in the industry and fundamentally changing the way vendors and their customers operate.

That SaaS is causing organizations of all sizes to pounce on new solutions like cats to mice speaks to the nature of business in 2007 – global and fast.While SaaS is commonly and accurately associated with low-cost, subscription-based software, what makes the new delivery paradigm sexy for large and mid-size businesses alike is the ease with which it can be deployed quickly to users all over the world.If yours is an organization with disparate offices and staff whose roles are interdependent, the ability to coordinate goals and activities easily across time zones is invaluable.

Talent management and SaaS go hand-in-hand for this very reason.Employee recruiting, compensation, performance and development are not local issues of interest to one or two people in an organization.Who a company hires to run product development in France impacts the engineers it may interview in the UK, Russia, Germany or Australia.And how much the organization pays a marketing director should correlate to that person’s performance, a point that is difficult to gauge when the director has worked in multiple divisions and geographic regions over the last year.

Advanced talent management systems mitigate these challenges by enabling users from any location to access the data they need, when they need it.So, the staffing manager can easily determine whether to hire Java programmers to support the new product development manager, and the marketing vice president can track how well a director executed a new advertising campaign, even if he didn’t supervise the director personally.

As more businesses expand globally, technology solutions that automate and integrate key processes and help companies find and retain top talent will become even more popular.And that’s why talent management is SaaS-y!